Jim Nicholson wrote to an old comrade in the CIA back in 2005. He was looking to cut a deal, perhaps a life for a life.

The disgraced CIA officer, serving 23 years in federal prison for espionage, wanted the U.S. spy agency to free him long enough to send him to the Middle east. His assignment: kill Osama bin Laden.

Here's an excerpt from the new Afterward of The Spy's Son, culled from FBI records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act:

"What I propose is essentially what I proposed some years back," Jim wrote. "It's still workable. It involves locating and killing Osama bin Laden."

Jim wanted the CIA to free him from prison long enough to launch him on a covert mission to kill America's public enemy number one. In his letter, Jim noted that he still had assets in the Middle East and asked his old friend to reach out to the agency's leadership on his behalf.

"They should know me after all [the files] they have access to," he wrote, "but they don't because they are all looking at me through the 'traitor' prism. Whatever I may have as assets, they now view as threats. It is my hope that you can help them remove their prisms and see the potential of what I'm offering to do and why."